Teachers and school employees in Jefferson Parish will officially see their first salary raise since 2011, after the school board unanimously approved a new plan to compensate teachers and staff for three years of frozen salaries at a Tuesday (May 13) night board meeting. The plan promises that teachers could see a raise of up to $2,400 by the 2014-15 school year.

"We wanted to manage the budget so that not only can you give a raise, but you can maintain the raise," superintendent James Meza said. "I think we can finally now recognize the loss in money and alleviate that."

The school board has agreed to allocate $10.5 million through their general funds to about 6,000 full-time school employees. The money comes through an extra $4.5 million generated from local tax revenue and a tax millage that was approved last September, as well as an extra $2.5 million that will come through an increase in state funding because of student enrollment increases.

A committee of parents, teachers, union members and local business leaders created the proposal approved on Tuesday night. In it, it states that teachers will be paid the step increases they were denied for the past three years, and will also be eligible for an extra step increase of either $400, $500, $600, or $800 at the start of the 2014-15 school year, provided that they were not given an "ineffective" rating. For a teacher who had worked in the system for over three years and was rated as "effective," this could mean a raise of up to $2,400.

"In the past three years, we've made some very difficult decisions, but I don't think there was one of us that didn't want raises for our teachers and all our employees," board member Larry Dale said. "Let's give some good news to all our employees."

Union president Meladie Munch, who also served on the salary proposal committee, stated that while she was very pleased with the board's decision to right the salary losses teachers have felt in the past few years, she did wish they would reverse their decision to base the last salary step raise on teacher ratings.

Teachers agreed that while they were happy to be receiving an increase, the board's decision to base their final step on teacher evaluations, coupled with the fact that they had gone so long without raises, made them nervous.

"I'm happy with the raise, but it's basically money that's been due to us," first grade teacher Shirlanda Joseph said. Joseph has been teaching in Jefferson Parish since 2004. "We're hard workers, dedicated, but I have friends who teach in Texas who make much more than I'll make."

Meza said however that this raise plan would not be the last. He added that he and his staff will be looking to recommend in the coming year that the school board also approve a base salary raise for entry level teachers.

"Our next step is to raise the bar so our new teachers coming in can look at a higher starting salary," Meza said. "I think that's our next step and I don't see any reason why we can't make that a reality."